What’s up: This week, it’s the second and final 2014-15 regular-season matchup of one-time bitter Western Conference rivals. The rivalry has taken a turn to the conventional since the Avalanche’s regression in recent years and especially since the Red Wings switched to the Eastern Conference last season. The teams won’t meet again in Denver until the Stadium Series game next year.

Background: Promoting the Coors Field game will involve efforts, both reasonable and ridiculously contrived, to harken back to the “Blood Feud” days of yore in the rivalry. So get ready for the replays of Lemieux vs. McCarty, Patrick Roy vs. Mike Vernon and Chris Osgood, and Marc Crawford going ballistic on the bench at Scotty Bowman … and more.

Frei’s take: Let former Colorado Rockies Larry Walker, Barry Beck and Lanny McDonald play for the Avalanche in the Alumni Game.

The Avs’ center moved to 4-for-4 in shootout attempts this season. But Sunday’s might be his best this year.

He slow-played Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek. It was like a staring-contest to see who would fidget first. MacKinnon waited until the last second. It was impressive. Here’s the full video of his goal with the Altitude call from Mike Haynes and Peter McNab. Or check it out below.

Mackinnon told Mike Chambers that “back in the day” he would use that move most of the season because many amateur teams didn’t suspect it. It’s not quite a wrist shot because he snaps it. It’s more a flip of the wrist. A snapper. Or a flipper.

Coors Field will not host an outdoor NHL game this coming season/ Daniel Petty, The Denver Post

Just to reference my story on the mothership site, my sources tell me there will not be any outdoor game in Denver involving the Avalanche this coming season. BUT, odds are very good there will be one the following season.

I don’t have any specific reasons why Denver won’t get an outdoor game this season, which would most likely be held at Coors Field. Just that it won’t happen. We’ll all just have to be a little more patient.

The good news: Denver wouldn’t have gotten the Big Enchilada Winter Classic game in early 2015 anyway, because that game already is set to be played in Washington. It would have had to have been a “Coors Light Stadium Series” game. So, maybe Denver will get the official Winter Classic in 2016. That would be a bigger event, and probably include an alumni game of sorts – and wouldn’t we just love it if that alumni game were between the Avs and Red Wings?

No on-ice practice for the Avalanche today. A few guys went on the ice anyway, guys like Ryan O’Reilly, the scratches of late and goalie coach Francois Allaire. But Patrick Roy wanted his team to watch some video instead, and have a workout in the gym.

Tomorrow, the Wings come to town, and I’ll have a story in the paper talking some about the great, old days of the rivalry. Some might call it, ahem, a “Blood Feud.”

Here’s a little video, of Matt Duchene and Roy talking about the Wings:

On a side note, thanks to the many people who had kind words from my last installment of “The Beat.”

DETROIT — Another two-flight day for me. Everything through Chicago. Minnesota to Columbus on Sunday, through Chicago, and Columbus to Detroit today, through Chicago. I arrived here far too late today to attend Avalanche practice at Joe Louis Arena, but coach Joe Sacco was kind enough to give me a shout on the phone.

He said Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who is back with the team after attending his mother’s funeral in Montreal, will start Tuesday against the Red Wings, with Seymon Varlamov in the paint Wednesday at Chicago. I previously posted this about Giguere’s mother.

Defensemen Erik Johnson and Ryan Wilson (orange sweater) again practiced hard with the team today, but Sacco said neither will play against the Red Wings. However, he’s not ruling either of them out Wednesday against the bonfire-hot Blackhawks. Obviously, the Avs will have to make moves to accommodate Johnson and Wilson on the 23-man roster, and among the seven D on the roster right now, Tyson Barrie and Stefan Elliott are the only ones eligible to be sent down to Lake Erie without clearing wavers.

Tomorrow’s story — which will be available online late tonight — will look at what Sacco might do about his D-corps. Barrie’s playing a top-four role right now, so big decisions are on the horizon.

The always intrepid folks at The Hockey News – the Bible of Hockey – had some interesting facts in their NHL Draft preview, which I encourage anybody who is serious about the game to go get at your newsstand (full disclosure: I do freelance work with them, have for a long time).

According to the issue is a fact I didn’t know: The Avalanche not only has the most number of players of any NHL team still playing for them who were actually drafted by the team (14), but there are more currently active players in the NHL who were originally drafted by the Avs (31) than any other team.

That’s a tribute, of course, to the team’s scouting staff. For a few years, the Avs’ drafting record was a topic of criticism. Or, do you not remember such first-round picks as Mikhail Kuleshov, Kevin Grimes, Jonas Johansson or Vaclav Nedorost?

The Avs will have the 17th pick in the first round of next month’s NHL Draft in Los Angeles, June 25-26.

The Hockey News does a top-60 list of prospects every year, so let’s take a look at the No. 17 guy in the current Draft Preview issue:
That would be:
Emerson Etem – 6-0, 190, native of Long Beach, Calif. Etem is a center who played for Medicine Hat of the WHL last year, and had 37 goals and 65 points in 72 games. In the issue, it is said that “Etem has been compared to Taylor Hall (expected to be the No. 1 pick) in terms of skating ability.”

We’ll see what happens.

– Here’s my take on Steve Yzerman leaving the Red Wings to be the GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Wow.

– There was a report that the Avs have signed prospect Jonas Holos to a two-year contract. But that is not officially the case yet.
Avs inform me that a deal has not been signed. Not that a deal won’t still happen (it probably will, sounds like). But it is not a fact.

– I can’t decide who I think will win the Stanley Cup. Both teams are at the top of their games right now. My hunch, though, is that this miraculous Philly team is going to find a way. How fun will it be to see Ian Laperriere in the Finals?

I thought my inbox would be full of nasty missives from Red Wings and Todd Bertuzzi-backers this morning. Thought there would be no shortage of vile directed at me for my story saying Bert has been no factor for the Wings so far – on the same day the Wings win 5-0 and he scores a goal. Read more…

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.